Movies to watch this week at the cinema: Passengers, Donnie Darko, more...

Out on Friday 23 December

Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence are Star-crossing lovers. Richard Kelly’s cult classic returns to cinemas.

Yes, here's this week's new releases. Click on for our reviews of Passengers, Donnie Darko, and Ballerina.

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Passengers

Passengers arrives with a cargo hold laden with expectation. The script – by Prometheus’ Jon Spaihts – had been knocking around on the Black List of the best unproduced screenplays for the best part of a decade, and after flirting with different star/director combos over the years (Reese Witherspoon and Keanu Reeves were once attached as the leads), the film arrives with the names of two of today’s biggest stars above the title: Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt, whose eight-figure salaries have been well documented.

So was the destination worth the journey? Well, like the corkscrewing spaceship at its centre, Passengers is slick, hi-tech and easy on the eye. But there’s not a whole lot happening on board.

The story kicks off on the starship Avalon, 30 years into its 120-year voyage to Homestead II, a colony planet that the ship’s 5,000 passengers will soon be calling home. But a piece of meteorite gets through the ship’s shield and fries something in the engine room, shorting out the suspended-animation pod occupied by Jim Preston (Pratt), a mechanic en route to a fresh start.

As the ship’s AI systems try to acclimatise him to his new living situation, he soon becomes distraught when he learns he’s the only person awake, and he’s got approximately 90 years to kill before he arrives at his destination.

Jim rattles around the empty luxury liner, exhausting the entertainment and dining options and growing a Robinson Crusoe-esque beard, before he starts to become suicidally lonely.

It’s at this point – through a plot contrivance that’s been kept hidden from the trailers, which we won’t spoil here – he acquires a fellow pod-person companion, writer Aurora Lane (Lawrence), a sleeping beauty who’s similarly freaked out when she wakes in her busted pod. The two hang out, shoot the breeze and make plans for survival. And, naturally, start to fall in love a bit. All the while, various parts of the ship are glitching out.

It’s an intriguing premise, and the not-too-distant-future tech is brought to life via some sharp CGI. As near futures go, it feels somewhat familiar – all screens are semi-transparent, virtual reality assistants are oppressively chirpy, synthetic food is served by vending machine – but it’s impressively realised.

Throughout the first half, interesting ideas abound. What kind of person relocates to a place that takes generations to get to? Who exactly is getting rich from the colonisation of Homestead II? And most importantly, how long will it be until we can have android bar staff like Michael Sheen’s duteous Arthur?

While many questions are posed, Passengers’ mysteries don’t lead to satisfying reveals. Director Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game) puts the romance up front, and while he’s happy to liberally scatter cine-literate references throughout – can anyone see a revolving spaceship corridor and not think of 2001? Likewise for hypersleep pods and Alien? – Passengers lacks the richness and complexities of the genre’s strongest offerings. Appearing so soon on the heels of the superior Arrival, and even the latest thought-provoking/skewering series of Black Mirror, it feels slight.

Lawrence and Pratt are among the most charismatic performers working today, and their natural likeability lends a boost to what are underwritten roles. Pratt, in particular, has his work cut out to ensure that Jim doesn’t seem totally creepy in light of some questionable behaviour.

The couple’s chemistry might not quite have the Stone/Gosling crackle, but they make a pleasing pairing on screen; the idea of spending 90 years with either of them isn’t an objectionable one. There’s a humour and lightness to much of their interaction, even if the characters don’t rank alongside either actor’s most memorable: Jim lacks the roguish charm of Peter Quill, and Lawrence’s glassy turn isn’t up there with her most engaging. Michael Sheen, meanwhile, lends terrific support, nailing his mannequin bartender’s ersatz humanity.

With the actors doing enough to keep you invested, and a steady supply of visually impressive set-pieces (space walks, zero-G swims) maintaining the pace, Passengers offers plenty of in-flight entertainment for its two-hour running time, even if it can’t match the tension of the similarly themed lost-in-space survival saga, The Martian.

Its main problem, in fact, is that while it’s perfectly enjoyable in itself, it’s always reminding you of slightly better films that it doesn’t quite live up to. As sci-fi, it feels like a professionally produced hybrid that lacks its own identity. As a romance, it never fully earns your investment. For those reasons, it seems destined to pass smoothly by without making a lasting impact.

THE VERDICT: Passengers never quite delivers on its concept, or the prospect of its Lawrence/Pratt team-up. Still, entertaining enough while it lasts.

Director: Morten Tyldum; Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt, Michael Sheen; Theatrical release: December 21, 2016

Matt Maytum

Donnie Darko

Not even the director’s cut, ‘sequel’ S. Darko or Richard Kelly’s variable career can dent his debut – 15 years on, Donnie Darko remains one of the century’s most singular and daring cinematic visions.

None more cult, it went from US box-office failure (its plane-crash plot opening just after 9/11) to the film-you-had-to-see, sparking crazed theories and an unlikely Christmas number one for Gary Jules. Kelly’s 2004 director’s cut tended towards the literal, but this restored theatrical version still works like a lucid dream from the moment Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes up in the hills.

Donnie’s journey down the rabbit-hole mixes high school romance, political satire, ’80s-cinema pastiche, creepy atmospherics and head-spinning sci-fi. Gothic in look but psychedelic in feel, its ambition is bracing. Yet what resonates is the emotional core.

Gyllenhaal’s breakthrough performance is simultaneously heartfelt, melancholy and mischievous. While Kelly has struggled to recapture his form, Donnie marks Gyllenhaal’s ascension to becoming the A-list’s most adventurous actor.

THE VERDICT: Don’t doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion! Still a masterpiece, bursting with images, ideas and emotions.

Director: Richard Kelly; Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Drew Barrymore; Theatrical release: December 23, 2016

Simon Kinnear

Ballerina

Félicie (voiced by Elle Fanning; shamelessly modelled on Frozen’s Anna) escapes an orphanage to study ballet in Paris. There she’s taught by a hobbled housekeeper (Carly Rae Jepsen), bonds with an inventor (Dane DeHaan) and falls foul of a fellow hoofer whose mother could out-de Vil Cruella.

The animation earns brownie points for its digital recreation of 1880s Paree. The rest, alas, is pretty pointe-less.

Director: Éric Warin; Starring: Elle Fanning, Dane DeHaan, Maddie Ziegler; Theatrical release: December 19, 2016

Neil Smith